


Knights of the Magic Table

by CrzyFun



Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: Arthur Knows About Merlin's Magic (Merlin), Arthur Pendragon Has Magic (Merlin), Gen, Gwen Has Magic, the knights of the round table have magic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-08
Updated: 2020-05-08
Packaged: 2021-03-02 19:07:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,383
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24081790
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CrzyFun/pseuds/CrzyFun
Summary: What if Merlin wasn't the only one that had magic? What if Arthur was surrounded by magic users, including himself?
Relationships: Gwen & Leon (Merlin), Gwen & Merlin (Merlin), Knights of the Round Table & Arthur Pendragon (Merlin), Knights of the Round Table & Merlin (Merlin)
Comments: 8
Kudos: 237





	Knights of the Magic Table

Arthur was around four when he developed magic. Uther found out quickly, but he could not hurt his son. Instead, he warned his son about the dangers of magic. He told him that he’d been cursed with magic by an enemy of Camelot and that it would corrupt him if he used it. It was the only way he could think of to protect his son from the darkness of magic. It hadn’t occurred to him that his son might grow to fear himself, to think he might be a monster.

Merlin, of course, had magic all along. Arthur discovers it when Merlin pulls him out of the way of a sorceress’s dagger because he can feel the magic wrapping around him to slow down time around them. But Merlin had saved him. Why would someone with magic save the Prince of Camelot? So he keeps quiet. He just about manages to convince himself that maybe it had just been his own magic he was feeling, when Valiant says, “I didn't summon you!” Arthur immediately realizes that of course he didn’t, Merlin did. He stills stays quiet though because Merlin had saved him again. Why? There must be some sort of plan!

So he waits and watches. When Merlin tries to expose himself as the one who left the poultice, Arthur talks down his father. Not because he doesn’t think it was Merlin’s, but because he knows Merlin’s not the one who caused the plague. It had been too distressing to him and surely the one who cast it wouldn’t burst in to tell the king they were the sorcerer.

Then Merlin drinks poison for Arthur and he can’t keep quiet anymore. Once Merlin is healed and Arthur is out of the dungeons, Arthur drags Merlin to a hidden corner of the castle and confronts him. There’s anger and fear all around, but in the end, Merlin’s still at Arthur’s side and Arthur gets to see Merlin’s magic book. He still refuses to do magic on purpose, but he reads through it just in case.

Lancelot had developed magic when he was older -- sixteen -- and his magic was weak. That was okay with him though as he dreamed of being a knight of Camelot and had no use for magic. Then he met a warlock with actual power serving the crown and he decided perhaps he might learn some actual magic after all. He was still weak, but he was a knight at heart so he focused his magic towards that. He could make his sword just a little sharper, make it hit a little harder and cut through things it maybe shouldn’t. He could make his armor a little stronger, let it take blows for him that should rattle his bones. He could trip up his opponents in ways that he couldn’t with his own reflexes alone. And that was good enough for him.

Gwen and Elyan developed theirs around eleven like most warlocks and witches. They hid it from all but themselves and one other. They managed to get some control of it, but Elyan still left Camelot, too afraid he’d be caught up in a hunt. Gwen stayed though as she couldn’t bring herself to leave her father or friends. She feared every day, especially as she was the personal maid to the king’s ward, but her love won out in the end.

When she was accused of healing her father, she was shocked. She had tried to heal him -- she knew she’d be accused of magic, but she would gladly trade her life for his -- but she didn’t know enough magic so her attempts had failed. She certainly didn’t know how to do anything with a poultice. Then she heard Merlin murmuring words of magic when he was dying of poison and realized the truth. She stumbled over figuring out how to tell him, but in the end, he found out by accident. She’d been trying to heal Morgana of her sleeping illness (which was later revealed to be the work of a sorcerous physician) when Merlin -- lovely idiot that he is -- barged into the room without knocking. They’d found relief in each other, then Merlin revealed something she hadn’t been expecting. She, in return, gave her own shocking news.

Leon wasn’t sure exactly when his magic had developed because it was thankfully subtle in its appearances. Wounds healing faster than they should. Deadly blows just missing their mark. Little things that would make his fellow knights think him lucky, but not enough to think him magic. He was sixteen and on a break from his squire training to visit his home when he realized he wasn’t just lucky. He’d been practicing in a courtyard when he’d accidentally cut his hand. Gwen -- only twelve at the time and still living with her mother on his family’s estate -- had been walking by with some laundry when it had happened. She had seen and came over to see if he’d needed help. The cut, just a tiny scratch really, had closed up in front of their eyes. Like magic, he realized with a panic.

Gwen had talked him down, revealing her own magic in the process. He soon after learned her brother was the same. When he worried over what kind of knight he would be with magic, she pointed out that so long as he used his magic for good and never gave in to the darkness like those sorcerers who attacked Camelot did then he would be a great knight. Years later she would come to him with even more comforting news and he felt the hint to a brighter future when he stood before his prince with no secrets between them.

Gwaine wasn’t a warlock, exactly. Because his magic was the result of his father. The Green Knight, a being of Annwn who had once been in service to the Fisher King. When his King had become injured, his father, like many others, had moved on. His father had ended up in the neighboring Kingdom of Caerleon. After many years of serving the kings of the country, his father fell in love with his mother and gave up his power to become human and marry her. Shortly after he was born, his father died in battle. Even still, Gwaine had inherited some of his power. He was stronger than he should be and didn’t hurt easily. Blows bruised when they should have broken bones. He got cuts instead of gashes. And best of all, he could drink three times as much alcohol as another man of his size.

He knew immediately that Merlin was magic. Something in his father’s genes told him Merlin was something special, though he couldn’t place it. A bit of alcohol in Gwaine had both their stories coming out.

Elyan had sworn he would never return to Camelot when he left. He stuck by that, even when his father passed away. He learned how to control his magic, discovered ways to weave it into his metalworking to create weapons and armor that were stronger than any others. But then he’d been kidnapped and his sister had rescued him. Along with her was a pair of warlocks just like them. A pair that included the Prince of Camelot.

Percival had grown up in a small village in Essetir that often had druids passing through. From them, he learned little tricks. He could make flowers bloom early and make lights dance in the air. He learned how to make wood catch fire no matter how wet and how to talk to others with magic using his mind. When Cenred’s men destroyed his village, he learned a few other tricks as well. He learned how to ask trees to trip people with their roots and how to ask a river to calm enough for him to cross it. Not long after, he met Lancelot and they shared stories and magic. When Lancelot was called to Camelot to fight an immortal army from Essetir, Percival gladly joined him.

It was at the Ancient Round Table, standing alongside honorable men and woman with magic, that Arthur finally realized that perhaps it wasn’t the magic that made people dark, but simply the power and how they chose to use it.


End file.
